After celebrating with his teammates and walking back to his own half, Lu Wenbin looked at Kate in the first row of the stands.
Kate was seen standing with the wives or girlfriends of other teammates, applauding Lu Wenbin and Hoffenheim.
After seeing Lu Wenbin looking over, Kate gave Lu Wenbin a thumbs up, which made Lu Wenbin very happy and even more motivated.
Next, Lu Wenbin, who was eager to show off in front of the person he liked, became the player with the longest running distance on the court, even the midfielders of both teams could not match him.
Not only inside and outside the penalty area, but also in the midfield, Lu Wenbin could be seen, and sometimes he even ran to the backcourt to pass the ball.
The commentators in the commentary booth were all talking about it, "Lu was a little abnormal today. Compared with the past, the range and distance of his running were very large. I don't know what stimulated him."
"Could it be that Lu is a little too excited because today's game can secure the half-time championship in advance?"
“It’s possible!”
"I wonder if Lu Wenbin can keep running like this until the end of the game. His physical fitness has improved significantly recently, but he's still not at the level of running all over the field like this, right?"
"Yes! However, this puts Bielefeld's midfielder Kauf, who is responsible for closely marking Lu, in a dilemma."
Indeed, Lu Wenbin's running range made it difficult for Kauf to deal with it.
Lu Wenbin can retreat to Hoffenheim's half, but as a defensive player of Bielefeld, what's the point of Kauff running to the opponent's half
Although his task was to closely guard Lu Wenbin, his ultimate goal was just to prevent Lu Wenbin from shooting or scoring a goal.
When Lu Wenbin retreated to his own backcourt, there was naturally no threat to Bielefeld's goal.
Therefore, after thinking it over again and again, Kauf felt that there was no need to follow Lu Wenbin, and it would be better for him to stay in his own backcourt and help his teammates defend Eduardo and others.
However, as soon as Lu Wenbin crosses the center line, Kauf will stick to him as soon as possible.
In the 31st minute, Lu Wenbin advanced to the penalty area, received a pass from Obasi and shot.
As a result, Kauf bumped into Lu Wenbin, causing Lu Wenbin's center of gravity to shift. He failed to control the angle and shot the ball a little straight, which was easily confiscated by the goalkeeper.
Lu Wenbin missed a chance to score twice.
…
No matter how extreme the defense is, Bielefeld still wants to score a goal when there is a chance. After all, they are behind now.
To get points, we have to at least equalize.
So, in the 42nd minute, Hoffenheim's attack was interrupted, and when the ball was cleared to Bielefeld midfielder Kirsch, Bielefeld began to counterattack.
Although there were only two or three people counterattacking, Hoffenheim's back line still had to defend. Other frontcourt players also began to retreat to shorten the passing distance with the back line.
As all Hoffenheim players retreated, Bielefeld's formation, which had been compressed within 30 meters of its own goal, was relaxed and began to press forward to the midfield with Hoffenheim.
The midfielder even excitedly crossed the center line, wanting to support the attacking players in the frontcourt to see if he could score a goal to equalize the score.
When Lu Wenbin retreated to his own half, Kauf also pressed forward to the center circle and was about to cross the center line.
Of course, as a full-time defensive engineer midfielder, he generally would not cross the center line.
Kauf gave up closely marking Lu Wenbin and stayed in his own half.
As both sides moved towards Hoffenheim's half, Bielefeld goalkeeper Elhoff also breathed a sigh of relief, relieving his nervous nerves from being under pressure from Hoffenheim.
He walked out of the small penalty area and stretched his neck to look forward in the large penalty area, hoping that his teammates would score a goal and equalize the score.
However, he did not wait for the goal.
Bielefeld striker Katongo's shot was saved by Ozcan, and then cleared by defender Nilsson with a long kick to midfield.
Ibisevic headed the ball to Eduardo in a header battle with the opponent's midfielder. Lu Wenbin waved to Eduardo on the right side of the midfield, indicating that he should pass the ball.
Because he lost the close defense of Kaufman, Lu Wenbin's 19/19 off-ball running left him in an unguarded space in his own half most of the time.
Although Kauf was moving according to Lu Wenbin's position at this time, he did not cross the center line to defend Lu Wenbin closely. He was more than ten meters away from Lu Wenbin.
He was confident that as long as Lu Wenbin crossed the center line, whether with the ball or not, he could quickly stick to Lu Wenbin and defend him.
After all, he is faster than Lu Wenbin.
Lu Wenbin naturally has the most possession of the ball in the team. Seeing Lu Wenbin wanting the ball and there was no one defending around him, Eduardo passed the ball to him.
At this time, Bielefeld goalkeeper Elhoff was still standing in the penalty area, still disappointed that his teammate Cartoongo's shot was saved by the Hoffenheim goalkeeper. He did not feel any sense of crisis about the ball passed by Eduardo to Lu Wenbin.
Lu Wenbin hadn't even crossed the center line, so naturally he wasn't alert at all.
However, when Lu Wenbin received the ball without any defense, he looked up at Elhoff's position and suddenly couldn't help but have the urge to shoot directly.
Elhoff's position was too far forward.
It just so happened that Kauf was far away from him and would not interfere with his shot, so he couldn't even sacrifice himself to block the bullet hole.
Therefore, Lu Wenbin pushed the ball slightly forward, took two steps, suddenly raised his thigh and kicked the ball hard at the lower middle part of the ball, and shot directly from his own half several meters away from the center line.
Lu Wenbin's big kick stunned everyone in the audience. The first half hasn't even ended yet, so where is Lu Wenbin going to kick
Are there any Hoffenheim players in front to provide support
When everyone looked towards Bielefeld's goal along the flight path of the ball, they realized that Lu Wenbin had shot directly.
At this time, Elhoff was running towards the goal in a panic, turning his head to look up at the sky and adjusting his running direction.
Countless fans in the stands stood up at once and watched the ball with wide eyes.
Such a long-distance lob that didn't even cross the center line was rarely seen throughout the entire season, so naturally everyone was staring at it.
As the game progressed, Kate had completely transformed herself into the role of a Hoffenheim fan and Lu Wenbin fan, and her mood fluctuated with every shot of Lu Wenbin.
This time was no exception. I couldn't help but stand up with the people around me, stretching my neck to look in the direction of the ball, hoping that the ball would avoid the goalkeeper's defense and fall into the goal.
Dickenson, the commentator in the commentary booth, exclaimed: "Lu shot directly from the midfield, and Elhoff was standing a little forward. Let's see if this ball will go in!"
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